


bring me the night

by evercelle (amagnetism)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 21:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12490732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amagnetism/pseuds/evercelle
Summary: Vampires haven't set foot amongst the sunwalkers for decades, not since the Rift, but Shadowcourt Prince Oikawa Tooru is out to change that. One person—or at least, one knight—at a time.





	bring me the night

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meupclose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meupclose/gifts).



> Here is part one of my [Fantasy Haikyuu Exchange](https://fantasyhaikyuuexchange.tumblr.com) gift for @cas-allmyfavoritethings! The assigned creature was **vampire** , and the prompts were: **magic AU, prince Oikawa/knight Iwa, medieval garb,** and an **Oikawa/Suga friendship quest!** Title is from [this song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ihOCgdarFg)
> 
> This is unbeta'd, and [the accompanying artwork](http://evercelle.tumblr.com/post/166773409235/bring-me-the-night-read-on-ao3-tooru-had-been) (that I actually signed up for, lol) can be viewed on tumblr! I hope you like it!!

Tooru had been wandering aimlessly in the castle gardens for nearly an hour by the time his hanger-on finally caught up. In the two moon’s turns he had spent so far in Corvana, Tooru had only been able to shake off his guard a handful of times. He almost wanted to ask what had taken the knight so long to catch up to him today.

It was twilight, the closest Corvana ever got to a real nightfall, and the reddish-gold light draping the cloistered gardens in warmth and shadow seemed to soften everything around him: the brilliantly colored flowers, the crisp cut lines of the stone walls, the sound of the approaching knight’s boots, crunching on the gravelled path.

“Shouldn’t you be wearing your shroud?”

“Shouldn’t you be wearing your shroud, _my lord_ ,” Tooru corrected mildly as he turned. “And not anymore, by this time of day. I’m not going to shrivel in the slightest bit of your sunlight.”

There was a long pause while the knight eyed first Tooru, then the pitch-black veil haphazardly discarded on a nearby bench, clearly skeptical.

“I wouldn’t have guessed, from the way you whine and carry on at noon,” Iwaizumi said at last. At Tooru’s indignant huff, he added, “ _My lord,_ ” amusement twitching up one corner of his mouth.

“ _This_ is tolerable. There’s simply no excuse for your realm’s midday,” Tooru sniffed. At high noon, the sheer intensity of the light pouring from the sky set Tooru’s skin afire; at dusk, it was only a tingling sensation, so different and novel compared to the last one hundred years of eternal night in the Shadowcourt that he actually preferred to go unshrouded.

He could probably stay in Corvana for a full heavensturn and still find their total sunlight absurd and  fascinating. Tooru had never been to this part of human lands before the Rift, and everything was so vibrant, so richly colored in this sun-touched world. He cupped a flower in one gloved hand, admiring how the flame-bright petals lay against the dark leather. “Beautiful. How something so lovely flourishes under the same sun as the realms’ most ill-mannered knight, I’ll never know.”

He could _feel_ Iwaizumi bristle behind him and almost let himself cackle aloud. Almost.

“Ill-mannered. Right,” Iwaizumi said flatly. “This coming from the alterworld princeling who thinks casting a glamour on the _royal court_ is _polite_.”

“The nobles of your court certainly weren’t opposed. Are all Corvanan knights as rude as you, Iwa?” Tooru complained gleefully. Iwaizumi spoke plainly by nature, but Tooru never truly minded the liberties the knight took in addressing him. In fact, Tooru was the one who taunted the decorum out of Iwaizumi weeks ago. He let the flowers go to pivot on his heel and nudge one hand through Iwaizumi’s crossed arms, tugging the knight into a slow walk.

“I'm not your _handmaiden_ ,” Iwaizumi muttered, but he went willingly enough, letting his free arm fall to the hilt of his sword, curling the arm Tooru was looped through as though he were escorting the prince to a ball, not taking a leisurely turn through a tiny castle garden.

That would be a sight to see, Tooru mused.  It was strange enough to be walking arm-in-arm with a human, let alone Iwaizumi. Winning the sincere regard of a single knight was an effort days upon days in the making, nevermind the rest of his kind.

Tooru studied the way the early evening light fell on the planes of the knight’s sturdy face, how it painted his vambraces and greaves with strips of warm, bloody light. On sentry duty, Iwaizumi went lightly armored, but he still looked every inch a warrior, even with Tooru’s slim gloved fingers resting on the cool bulk of his plated forearm.

A mere century ago, Iwaizumi might have greeted him in this red sunset not with linked arms, but a naked blade. Human lives were short, but memory ran long... and they all remembered the centuries the Shadowcourt reigned not in isolation, but by conquest, by enthrallment.

 

_After decades of fighting to to escape the Shadowcourt’s control, the last ditch-efforts of human sorcerers succeeded in their final gambit for freedom: they split the world asunder, sealing the Shadowcourt into its own realm, into the permanent darkness of its endless nights._

_A century later, that seal was reopened under a white banner as the critical flaw in humankind’s plan became apparent: as one world, there had been the blood and fire of war, but in arcane isolation, both sunlit and shadow realms were slowly crumbling into dust._

 _The balance of the world's aetheric energies must needs be met. Life under the former vampire reign might have been suffering, but without the shadow half there would be no living at all. At the very least, a hundred years of separation gave the sunwalkers time to prepare better weapons, stronger defenses. But first, they would try coexistence._

_And so Tooru had strode into the garish splendor of Corvana’s throne room weeks ago, bowing deeply before the Summer Throne, the first time vampires had set foot in Corvana in decades, and the first time as equals, not as lords poised before mere chattel._

_The Shadowcourt delegates had worn their dark shrouds, unveiling themselves as the court’s herald announced the arrival of the vampire prince, accompanied by his sole retainer. Tooru remembered the hushed whispers as the pair of vampires approached the throne, and the collective, enraptured sigh as he shed his shroud and veil, let the full effect of his powerful glamour wash over them all._

_“Someone’s laying it on thick,” Sugawara had whispered under his breath; Tooru only smiled more charmingly at the Corvanan king and queen, dressed in royal black and orange. Maybe he didn’t_ **need** _to let his magic spangle extra stars in his eyes, but he used the glamour to blunt his fangs and ears, disguise the spread of his wings, flush his pale skin with warmer color._

_Assuming a (very, very attractive) human’s appearance was merely an act of courtesy, of diplomacy, and Tooru was quite good at wearing faces._

_He’d win their trust, he’d build back the bridges his kin burned long ago.  There were plenty of nobles in the Shadowcourt who believed that the opening in the rift was an invitation to resume their rightful reign, but Tooru’s vision for the future reached further than weary cycles of resistance, of pained, bloody obedience._

_He would become the Shadowcourt king that healed the rift between shadow and sunlit realms._

_Tooru had made the correct amount of obeisance to Corvana’s royalty, then began scanning the galleries while Sugawara, cloaked beneath a much simpler glamour, began their formal introduction. He didn’t turn away from the throne, but he did lift his chin, so that the crystallight might flicker more dramatically upon on the lunar pearls of his ornate circlet, his easy, pleasing smile._ _A noble woman squeaked audibly and hid her face behind a fan; out of the corner of his eye, Tooru watched one of the royal guards color and blink furiously, and he smiled a little wider._

_It would betray the spirit of his mission to use his magic to truly sway the humans’ minds in his favor, but Tooru knew that first impressions meant something to nobility and commoners alike of any race, and he meant to make this work by any means. They needed to think of him as some genteel princeling, not a monster of the void._

Believe we come with peace in hand, _his charming, cajoling glamour meant to say,_ believe that you can trust in me.

 _And yet, among the vivid red and orange and gold of the throne room, among the cautiously optimistic whispering in the galleries, Tooru felt the chilling stare of the one man not utterly taken by his spell, gazing back, scowling in a way that said,_ I don’t.

 

The sunwalkers might have extended the invitation to parley, but they weren't fools. It was with little surprise that the royal guard had immediately saddled Tooru with Iwaizumi, an honor guard in name but obviously a watchdog in practice. They hustled Sugawara off with his own personal escort, clearly aiming to keep the Shadowcourt delegation separated. Tooru had let it pass without comment; the little power play meant nothing to his plans in the long run. There was so much more of interest to watch, and catalog, and learn anew, as he wandered the royal castle and capital city, tailed by his assigned knight.

Iwaizumi had been reticent at first, thawing only by degrees as he realized that Tooru’s constant, needling questions were as much sincere curiosity about the kingdom as to provoke responses from the knight. Human custom had changed rapidly in a century of separation, and as interesting as Corvanan culture was, Iwaizumi was much more fun to prod and examine. The knight who was wary and guarded was also straightforward and genuine. He was reliable to his friends and comrades; he cared quite a lot about his liege lord and his kingdom.  

Gradually Iwaizumi had really taken to the task of watching over Tooru, perhaps more than duty strictly required. Possibly it was because Iwaizumi was the sort of person who cared a lot about making sure any job assigned to him was a job done well.

But in the dull gloaming that passed for Corvanan nights, when Iwaizumi pushed his cloak onto Tooru—despite Tooru’s insistence that the dim light wouldn't harm him and that he would remember his shroud next time, truly—the rosy evenings when Iwaizumi spent the time he should be resting instead listening to Tooru talk about the lore of their once shared constellations—he’d begun to think that perhaps Iwaizumi cared a little about him too.

“Someone’s quiet, for a change,” Iwaizumi observed, jolting Tooru out of his thoughts.

“Perhaps it’s the lack of witty, engaging company,” Tooru suggested brightly.

Iwaizumi spared him an irritated glance, but didn’t otherwise rise to the provocation. Their path turned around yet another stand of flowering bushes, where the syrupy twilight limned a row of leaded glass windows in rose gold. At Iwaizumi’s extended silence, Tooru glanced up from the  windows and the hundreds of embery blossoms; Iwaizumi was staring at him, frowning deeply.

He wasn't even attempting to hide it, the way he'd so clumsily, charmingly pretended not to stare in the early weeks of their acquaintanceship.

“I know I’m entrancing, but there’s really no need to gawk.”

Iwaizumi colored slightly.  Tooru crowed internally, until Iwaizumi narrowed his eyes and scoffed, “Hardly. Looking at your face pains me.”

Well. It was hard not to feel a little stung by that, considering how fondly he'd been reminiscing about the knight a second ago. “Shall we double back?” Tooru asked, more tightly than he would’ve preferred. “It appears you’ve misplaced your courtesies somewhere along our walk.” 

With their weeks of constant company, Tooru was confident he had as strong a read on the knight as any other human, but lately Iwaizumi had been demonstrating a startling adeptness at reading Tooru's own moods, especially the ones he typically kept to himself.  Sometimes Iwaizumi made Tooru feel like he had lost his footing, and as much as he liked Iwaizumi he wasn’t sure that he liked _that_.

He heard Iwaizumi heave a sigh before he was jerked to a halt. “That’s not what I meant,” Iwaizumi said, managing to sound simultaneously perfectly earnest and extremely aggravated. Iwaizumi turned fully to face him, his arm unfurling, hand sliding down to grip Tooru’s wrist. Tooru stared pointedly just over his head in a move designed to annoy him.

It didn’t work. That was another endearing, bothersome thing he’d learned about Iwaizumi; the knight could be endlessly patient, especially when Tooru wasn’t. Tooru gave up, let himself meet Iwaizumi’s eyes again, and felt slightly mollified at the embarrassed pinch to his eyebrows. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who felt a little off-balance lately.

“I meant,” Iwaizumi clarified, steadily holding his gaze--solid and focused, in spite of his apparent discomfort, yet more things Tooru realized he liked an awful lot about him--“I don’t... like looking at your false-face. The glamour. It’s…” he trailed off, still frowning.

“My glamour,” Tooru repeated, dubious.

Iwaizumi’s fingers felt heavy on his wrist, felt warm through the dark fabric of his sleeve. Since arriving in Corvana, neither he nor Sugawara had ever dispelled the magic, knowing humans took comfort in the perceived deference of the gesture. Even among the politics of the Shadowcourt, he was used to wearing a princely persona; serving up what the audience needed to see was something Tooru had long accepted as a simple fact of life.

To be finally told to discard that ever-present expectation, here in a tiny garden an entire realm away from home, held in place by a man who should have remained inferior in both rank and Tooru’s regard if not for his wretchedly hopeful heart, was so absurd that Tooru actually burst out laughing.

Iwaizumi arched a brow, and though his shoulders lost their uncomfortable slant, he didn't laugh. “I’m serious, you wretch. I’ve been watching you for weeks, and I don't think I've ever seen your _actual_ face even once. I've seen paintings from the War of the Eclipse, and you don't look like any vampire I've seen before.”

“Humans find us… unsettling. For many reasons, beyond the obvious. I maintain the glamour for a purpose, you know,” Tooru finally managed. He pressed the back of his free hand to his mouth to stifle another hearty, slightly hysterical chuckle.

"You've hardly acted politic around me for weeks anyway," Iwaizumi pointed out. "Try me."

“You don’t want that.” _You don't know what you're asking for. Or... maybe you_ do _._ “Believe me.”

“I don’t,” Iwaizumi said, quietly, and the familiar words dropped into Tooru’s heart like a pebble in a moon-watching pond. He shivered with the imagined ripples, picturing the broken refraction, never quite the same after...

But Iwaizumi’s thumb was pressed so comfortingly to his pulse, and the false-dusk was falling faster; where the early red-tinted twilight had made the gardens glow with vibrancy, the late gloaming touched Iwaizumi with the more familiar colors of the coming semi-night, brought the red-painted corners of his eyes into richer relief, inviting and fierce at all at once. Tooru screwed his eyes shut hard, weighing the balance of this choice. When he opened his eyes again, everything was swimming in shards of color, everything was red and indigo and gold and the silhouette of the man waiting patiently before him.

“Well, don’t say I didn’t I warn you,” Tooru muttered, and he let his glamour go.

He could feel Iwaizumi’s eyes tracking over his face, no doubt absorbing the long fangs, the solid blackness of his eyes. In a moment of petty belligerence, Tooru unfurled and mantled his wings around them. For one spiteful second he thought that if Iwaizumi would finally turn away from him, he would prefer it to be from fear, not disgust.

Deep down, he knew it was pointless posturing, an intimidation tactic that wouldn’t work. That flush of anger was immediately replaced with a feeling that tasted humiliatingly like shame, and for a fleeting moment Tooru felt wan and insubstantial, too-pale skin wrapped in dark clothes, nearly colorless beneath the tanned hue of Iwaizumi’s hands, suddenly tracing over Tooru’s jaw, his cheekbones, the long point of one ear.

“Well?” Tooru asked, aiming for haughty; instead his tone fell somewhere closer to strangled.  Breathless, maybe.

Iwaizumi’s broad hand settled over the hinge of his jaw, firepoints against his skin. Iwaizumi was looking at the spread of his wings, and he still hadn’t said anything, and Tooru was aching inside, hypertuned to the sound of Iwaizumi's heartbeat; skin-to-skin, he could sense the anima his kind fed on, pounding through the knight’s blood, beating beneath the skin of his fingertips. Tooru wanted to turn away and pull the magic back over him, he wanted to reach out and chase the shadows the gloaming folded over Iwaizumi’s face. He wanted just a taste of that rich, red, thrumming vitality. He wondered if the strength and honesty that made Iwaizumi the sort of person who asked unabashedly for Tooru’s most real self tasted red, _red_ too.

But Iwaizumi still hadn’t spoken a word yet.

Tooru began to pull away, bitterness climbing in his throat, but Iwaizumi forcibly turned his face back, eyes snapping up to meet his. He squirmed, pinned beneath the intensity of that fearless, red-tipped gaze. Looking Iwaizumi in the eye felt rather like staring into the sun for the first time in a century all over again: Tooru _burned._

There was a feeling unfurling in his chest, something suspiciously like anticipation. He couldn’t help himself; Tooru licked his lips and said, as imperiously as he could manage, “There, you’ve seen it all, have you had _enough_ yet?”

“No, I haven’t,” Iwaizumi said simply, and drew Tooru in at last.

**Author's Note:**

> [check out the accompanying artwork for this fic on my tumblr](http://evercelle.tumblr.com/post/166773409235/bring-me-the-night-read-on-ao3-tooru-had-been)
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> (if you semi-deliver on a whole bunch of prompts, does it equal one completed exchange gift???)


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